Recently I received a query from a woman who longed to know her gifts which werent apparent; her life mission; and what God wanted her to do. Her yearning resonates with many people. Soulful matters like this can not be figured-out or forced from the realm of the mind - as I was poignantly reminded of a moment ago.

I had been struggling to write this article for two days. It had been stilted, with no flow and involving many frustrated breaks. I reread Richard Bolles chapter on finding your mission in What Colour is Your Parachute, and some favorite chapters from Thomas Moores, Care of the Soul. However, rather than inspiring me these excellent excerpts further stymied my writing.

At least it did until a moment ago, when I took yet another frustrated break knowing today is my newsletter deadline. Only this time, rather than going and doing something I laid flat on my back upon my living room floor. This is a relaxation, meditative technique author Jon Kabat-Zinn recommends we do daily. As I returned to my breathing, myself, and my God I realized how out of peace I was feeling and how hard Id been trying to find and write the answer into this newsletter.

Then, an epiphany! I realized I was trying to think out the how-tos of finding ones life mission and I had neglected the first most important step that of finding peace in oneself. If we are working hard to find our life mission and feeling out of peace about it all - the wondrous gifts imbedded in our beings are obscured. We need to be in our being (as opposed to our head), to remember our God-given gifts which are the crux of our mission.

I agree with Richard Bolles in that, each of us has three missions. First and foremost our mission is to return to our God, to our peace within, and live from there as best we can. As Richard Bolles reminds us, it makes sense to know the missioner (who gave us the talents and the mission in the first place) before we seek the mission. In this, it is our lifework to spend quiet time with ourselves and our God daily.

Try lying on your back on the floor a couple times a day. Here we observe our discontent, worry and fear and begin to befriend it all as we just let go of the unruly thoughts. Over and over we just come back to our breath and to being with ourselves. Slowly we learn to be Ok with ourselves and get glimmers of peace. Returning to our God, and living in peace with ourselves is the very ground of our being and a mission we humans share.

The second mission shared by humanity is making the world a better place. In any situation we are given the opportunity to be kind, patient, loving, grateful, and compassionate or not. What do we choose? It is our lifework to do no harm and live with as much loving-kindness in each moment as we can muster. Simply, this means we do not cold-shoulder the beggar on the street or cut the car off in front of us. The small things in life make great differences.

Through firstly, returning to our own God, peace and acceptance within; and secondly, striving to make the world a better place in all our interactions we are working on the first two missions shared by all human beings. Through making these first two missions our lifework, we grown down into our being. It is here we come to know our talents and see them connecting to our unique life mission our third mission. Without working on the first two missions it is difficult, if not impossible, to come to our own unique mission.

We do not have to think up our personal mission, or figure out our gifts. They are already written within us. We came into this world with God-given talents and these are the axis of our mission here on earth. We need to be gentle, curious, patient and observant in order to remember our talents which in turn, connect us to our own unique mission.

Sometimes we are so busy looking for our mission on the mountain-top we forget the only way to the top is one step at a time. We need to remember many of us fulfill our mission working down in the valley - never realizing how wide of ripple weve made until after this life.

So my friends, in closing let us remember that it is HOW we live each step, in each moment - rather than some lofty ascent - that is our mission in this life.